Archive for August, 2010

Google disputes bug patching report
Google on Monday said that a recent report claiming it failed to patch a third of the serious bugs in its software had the facts wrong.

IBM’s X-Force security company, which released the report last week, acknowledged the error and issued a revised chart that shows Google patched all the vulnerabilities rated “critical” or “high” in its online services.

“We questioned a number of surprising findings concerning Google’s vulnerability rate and response record, and after discussions with IBM, we discovered a number of errors that had important implications for the report’s conclusions,” said Adam Mein, a security program manager at Google, in an entry on a company blog .

Last week, X-Force’s report claimed that 9% of all Google bugs disclosed in the first half of 2010 were unpatched, and 33% of the vulnerabilities ranked as critical or high had not been fixed.

According to IBM’s revised tabulations, Google patched every vulnerability revealed in the first six months of this year.

“After we released our trend report … we received feedback from two software vendors regarding the severity and remedy information for some of the vulnerabilities behind this chart,” said Tom Cross, a researcher with X-Force, in a mea culpa blog posted on Saturday. “As a consequence of this feedback, we have manually reassessed the CVSS scoring, remedy information, and vendor information for every vulnerability that impacted the percentages that appear in this chart.”

Cross’ blog post included a revamped table that showed the new numbers.

Although Cross did not name the other vendor that complained about the patching results, Sun Microsystem’s numbers also changed dramatically. Where the original table had Sun letting 24% of all first-half 2010 bugs and 9% of the most serious flaws go unfixed, the recalculated figures were 8% and 0%, respectively. The changes dropped Sun from the vendor with the largest percentage of unpatched vulnerabilities to the one in fifth place.

In April, Oracle announced plans to acquire Sun for $7.4 billion ; X-Force listed the two companies’ vulnerabilities separately.

Other vendors’ unpatched percentages also decreased after X-Force re-examined its data, including Microsoft’s and Mozilla’s, as did the catch-all category of Linux.

What caught Google’s eye, said Mein, was X-Force’s assertion that one-in-three critical bugs had not been patched.

“We learned after investigating that the 33% figure referred to a single unpatched vulnerability out of a total of three — and importantly, the one item that was considered unpatched was only mistakenly considered a security vulnerability due to a terminology mix-up,” Mein said.

Mein pointed to a 2009 blog post by Jonathan Ness, a member of Microsoft’s security team, as proof of what he called mistaken identity. Ness’ blog discussed the difference between “stack overflows” and “stack buffer overflows,” and said the former were not security vulnerabilities because they could not be used on their own to insert attack code onto a PC.

It’s not unusual for software vendors to dispute the findings of independent security researchers. Mozilla, for instance, has repeatedly disagreed with reports that claim Firefox has more bugs than rival browsers, calling some of those reports “misleading” because Mozilla’s open-source approach requires that all vulnerabilities be disclosed while Apple and Microsoft MCTS Training can fix flaws without revealing that they were ever there.
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At times, developers also quarrel with researchers over the severity of a bug, or even whether a flaw should be labeled a vulnerability. More than two years ago, Microsoft first claimed that a Windows bug was a “design flaw,” then weeks later changed its mind and called it a security problem.

X-Force has also had problems with its vulnerability counts and calculations. In the report it issued last week, the company admitted that the methodology it used to compile the 2009 edition was flawed and said it had corrected the problem to make the results more accurate in the mid-2010 report.

Dead Rising 2 getting another collectors edition
While almost every major game release comes with a collector’s edition, rare is the game that gives you two options to spend extra cash. The “High Stakes Edition” of Dead Rising 2 provides reason to exist, however, as one lucky purchaser will win a six-foot statue modeled after one of the game’s zombies Microsoft MCTS Training.

While customers have had the opportunity to pre-order the “Zombrex” edition of Dead Rising 2 for a few weeks now, Capcom has revealed a second game bundle that will be available to order only through the company’s online store. The High Stakes Edition will include a poker set with a custom case and Dead Rising-themed playing cards, a tourist-map of the game’s fictional Vegas-esque city, a “ticket” featuring a code to download a “psycho” character skin and new abilities, and of course, the game itself. One purchaser of the game will get the most limited edition of all, as a golden ticket will be included with one copy of the game, rewarding its owner with a six-foot tall statue of Burt, one of the more snappily-dressed undead.
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The High Stakes Edition is available exclusively on the Capcom Store website for $90 — $30 more than the standard release and $10 more than the Zombrex edition. Dead Rising fans… which (if any) version will you be purchasing Microsoft MCITP Certification?

GamePro’s Friday giveaways: a hero-free-for-all
This week, we’re giving away five copies of City of Heroes across three sources — this page, GamePro’s Twitter page, and GamePro’s Facebook page. The winners will be chosen at random, so you’re best off entering everywhere Microsoft MCTS Training.

The tireless MMO auteurs at NCSoft have bestowed five copies of City of Heroes to the GamePro staff to celebrate the release of the game’s expansion pack, Going Rogue. Unfortunately, math has never been our strong suit, so we didn’t know at the time that five doesn’t divide equally amongst three (the number of sources for each GamePro Friday giveaway). So this week, we’re going rogue too and randomly giving out all five amongst GamePro, Twitter, and Facebook.
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Here’s what we’re going to do. At 6PM PST today, we’re going to bunch all of the valid entries together and assign each a number. GamePro will have the first batch, Facebook will have the second batch, and Twitter will have the third. We’ll then pick five numbers at random and give the games to those people. Because of the nature of random picks, it’s possible that one or even two sources could have zero winners, though odds are each source will have one. We’ll know for sure at 6PM Microsoft MCITP Certification.

To enter the contest, reply here on GamePro.com, to GamePro on Twitter, or to the Facebook contest post with the answer to the following question. “Who is your favorite fictional or non-fiction hero?” You can reply only once on each site, giving you up to three total entries into the contest. For more information, check out the rules of the GamePro giveaways.

Website Auction Hub features a comfortable forum environment where users can discuss website and domain name auctions from all around the web. Their innovative auction gathering service called the WAHbit, hops through other well known sources of internet auctions and collects websites for sale thus creating a master reference list. The auctions are categorized in established websites for sale, turnkey websites for sale, for more details visit to www.auction-professional.com and domain names for sale. This list is then presented on the front page so the users can assess the market at a quick glance.

The front page displays auctions as an itemized list with some of the key features highlighted. Users may click on these items to look at the details and to share valuable insight with each other. Since most of the auctions don’t actually take place on Website Auction Hub a truly free speech environment is created where users feel free to discuss all aspects of the website and the actual auction thread can be kept clean for the process of the deal making.

Website Auction Hub itemizes auctions in several categories for ease of use. Turnkey websites are websites that are ready to launch but have not been promoted, not been monetized with advertisement or other sources of revenue, and are not receiving traffic yet. Established websites are websites that have been in operation and are receiving traffic. An established website does not necessarily have to be making money. Domain names for sale are auctions that even though there might be a website associated with the address; for more details visit to www.auctions-profits.com the purchasing party will only receive the rights to use the particular domain name such as websiteauctionhub.com and then has to create a website for that address Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Website Auction Hub has created a website that features the largest collection of websites from all around the web neatly digested into a friendly environment for both website buyers and sellers. It gives users a quick glance at the market where they can instantly find the hottest auctions and it creates a truly free speech environment for the exchange of auction insights.

rapid business marketing program to promote innovation and competition to upgrade

Benefit from the growing demand-driven and a strong support for emerging technologies, IT operation and Dell Latitude D610 Battery maintenance market in recent years has shown strong growth momentum, which in turn promote the business of marketing the program to upgrade innovation and competition. Face a new round of applications, mainstream business is making determined efforts, Reloaded, a new Warring States Period’s crowded soon Damukaiqi.

Capital wrestling

ASL acquisition in May last year after the year in April, Teamsun announced the acquisition of Mocha. In less than a year’s time, in the same company’s two acquisitions, make the IT operation and maintenance services to once again become a hot topic in the industry focus.

“The acquisition of the purpose of the two companies, mainly in the IT services enrich Teamsun portfolio, and then ultimately enhance the company’s IT operation and maintenance and service management capabilities.” Teamsun Lvsong Huan, senior vice president, said.

Time back to May 7, 2009, to 262 million Hong Kong dollars Teamsun acquired Hong Kong’s largest IT service provider ASL Group, this acquisition makes Teamsun be the first truly comprehensive coverage to include China and Greater China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and parts of Southeast Asia, local IT service providers in China.

This year in April, the company in turn BSM / BPM software vendors into its mocha. To take, Teamsun improve IT operation and maintenance services in the product system, but also to further achieve its business structure optimization and upgrading.

In Lvsong Huan view, the acquisition of these two companies there was a deeper meaning: “ASL is Teamsun open up the international market towards the ’sea’, and mocha on the one hand provides us with a professional transport dimensional tool, on the other hand makes the company’s operation and maintenance business from small and medium enterprise market extends to the market. “

Breadth to the application from the market depth, from large enterprises to small and medium industries, from home users to the global outlook, Teamsun these two events on the one hand from the acquisition of IT services company transformation strategy matching, but also for high growth IT operation and maintenance market has responded positively.

As we all know, with the application of the rapid in-depth information, at all levels of IT systems become increasingly large and complex, which corresponding to the enterprise operation and maintenance of IT systems to bring greater management difficulties. How to simplify IT management while better meet business needs, enterprises have become major challenges facing IT departments.

It is also for enterprise users demand for IT Operation of rapid growth, making IT Operation Management market has been to maintain a rapid growth rate. Data show that in 2009 the market scale of China’s IT operation and maintenance nearly 3 billion yuan, more than 20% growth rate. Professional bodies, in the coming two years, the market will continue to increase every year HP pavilion dv9000 battery to maintain momentum in 2011 the market size will reach 50 billion yuan.

There is market demand, competition in the market there. IT operation and maintenance of strong market growth and bring about a solution provider to upgrade the marketing innovation and competition. The face of new applications, mainstream providers have preparations underway, heavy makeup battle, a new attack the era’s crowded the Taimukaiqi soon. In particular, the power in the capital after the entry of the original structure has been relatively stable market break, IT operation and maintenance markets will certainly usher in a new round of shuffling and power division.

The pack and play

On the current market, IT operation and maintenance program can be registered under the business direction is divided into three camps. Line camp is an international software giants such as IBM, HP, BMC, Microsoft MCTS Training, etc.; second-line camp to both technology and service-based local solution provider. These programs as part of business in the transition from a system integrator of integrated services from providers, such as Teamsun, Shenzhou Taiyue, Digital China, East China software, 100 million ICT yang, Tai Chi and computer, the other is operation and maintenance management software professional developers, such as communication over wide, Mocha, Tian Yuan, North Tower, etc.; three-camps scattered across the country include hundreds of regional systems integrators and software developers.

In addition, the second-line camp also includes Hitachi JP1, NEC MasterScope as the representatives of the Japanese brand. Although these products have performed pretty well in the global market, due to enter the Chinese market later time, visibility and influence there are some limitations at present its main application in the Japanese Embassy in institutions and among affiliated enterprises.

Traditionally, powerful product line camp, primarily for telecommunications applications, fly in the ointment is expensive, more a lack of local support; second-line camp emphasizes localization features, meticulous service, price-friendly, but in some in-depth application Some areas of powerless; three-wire camps because the product functions are limited, clients are mainly local SMEs, the current first-and second-line still can not bring greater threat camps.

Although the short-term IT Operation three camps will be no fundamental change in market structure, but in the long run, as the international manufacturers accelerating the process of localization, as well as local programs in comprehensive technical ability on the rise, in the near future, several large camps or penetrate each other, their boundaries will become increasingly fuzzy, and even moving toward integration.

In fact, this trend has been the beginning of another.

Were in formations

“Integrated Service Management is not a big business patents, IBM has a series of new solutions to help SMEs in IT operation and maintenance of applications.” IBM Software Group’s Tivoli software general manager of Greater China, Xu Weili stressed.

In fact, as early as late last year, IBM proposed the Integrated Services Management (ISM) concept, designed to connect smart dynamic infrastructure and IT assets from business assets, so that the data center as the earth wisdom, the “brain”, a comprehensive integration technical and industry knowledge; in April this year, based on ISM concept, IBM introduced a number of family-oriented industries, service-oriented customization and implementation, as well as for the ISM data center solutions to enhance business intelligence products and services innovation for different fields and different sizes to provide better industry, service customization and implementation and control and automation of database management.

“Integrated Services Management philosophy can be summed up to help businesses achieve the ‘three of’: that is highly visual, control and automation.” Xu Weili explained visualization to help users to see the operation and maintenance ibm ASM 92P1126 battery of the business of IT influence to help users easily controlled is the control and automation systems through the automatic configuration management tools and repair, minimizing human error.

It is worth mentioning that, IBM Tivoli is also aimed at the SME market, especially China, launched the IBM Tivoli Foundations integrated service management software application solutions to help China’s small and medium enterprise customers in an efficient, fast and economical way to more fully Using service management to enhance corporate value, and get a satisfactory return on investment.

Test a low SME market with the international giants corresponds to the Chinese mainland to strive for program business.

“IT Operation Management’s ultimate goal is integration of IT technology and business.” Wide at the Beijing Communication Tech Co., Ltd. General Manager Xu Yuyi view, with the increased maturity of IT applications, customers will continue to change and expand, need to be into the operation and maintenance aspects of the more and more, not just after the IT equipment.

Such as its communication reach of a city to undertake the operation and maintenance support video monitoring system software projects, in addition to IT and network infrastructure, including 5,000 km of fiber optic cable systems, 200,000 cameras, and all the tube wells, should be incorporated into the operation and maintenance monitoring platform . “Includes each camera model, configuration, installation location, maintenance records, all the resources and their cable channels, tube wells, etc., into the uniform resource configuration repository. 只有 to each session, each small cut have been adequately considered to, this is a complete operation and maintenance solution. “

“Endless innovation, operation and maintenance everywhere. To meet the operation and maintenance of various sub-sectors need to create service value, the resources needed to sharpen their ability to integrate and apply innovation.” Xu Yuyi said, if you do not pay attention to R & D to enhance technical superiority and blindly relying on commercial marketing is hard to say how far companies can go in the future.

Wide communications provider over is just a Microsoft MCITP Certification of local programs, more like Tianyuan, mocha, etc., which were also occupied in the different fields of industry, certain advantages. Accumulated many years of industry experience, the depth of the industry, close application, supported by China’s unique “understanding” culture, when the time comes, local business development prospects also not be underestimated. At this time, but also enhance the local program will be a component of commercial markets a plus chips.

Corresponding rise

“In the past we talk about the IT operation and maintenance, and more support in the system or equipment maintenance level. And now, in addition to technology, we should also be infiltrated into the business process operation and maintenance and personnel management.” Hewlett-Packard Co., China’s vice president of China, Enterprise Business Group, Technical Services Division, said Ye Jian, general manager.

In his view, IT operation and maintenance had mostly concentrated on the single point of application, is now more concerned with the overall system; previously focused on hardware devices, and is now extended to the data center, including wind, fire, water, electricity, including all infrastructure, even the client’s business operations. “In this regard, operation and maintenance services for Hewlett-Packard attention has shifted to IT operation and maintenance life cycle, from technology, processes, people make a deal with three aspects.”

“HP’s technology services into China over 25 years, in addition to the traditional operation and maintenance support services, our business expanded to the data center consulting, design, implementation and on-line, data center transformation, network, infrastructure and other aspects of consulting and training services go all out to help customers improve their operation and maintenance management processes, to create the most flexible IT infrastructure, enterprise business development for the kinetic energy. “Yeh said.

Can see that business continuity as users demand rising, the corresponding operation and maintenance Dell Inspiron 9400 Battery programs are also on the IT service provider capacity to bring greater pressure and challenges. In this regard, Taiji Computer Co., Ltd. Sun Guofeng, general manager of strategic development is deeply felt: “In the past operation and maintenance work done, we mainly rely on people. We engineer into the customer’s room, the regular checks on system operation indicators, to ensure the system run; but now more and more complex systems, in addition to people, it must be a professional operation and maintenance tools to made a good operation and maintenance system. “

“IT operation and maintenance is the entire business chain, Tai Chi is an important part of Tai Chi is one of the important business strategy.” According to “do the most good IT service provider” business strategy, Tai Chi designated the government, financial , energy, metallurgy and so on several strategic industries and key sectors for the provision of IT consulting services, industry solutions and services, IT product value-added services, IT integration, infrastructure services such as IT services.

Sun Guofeng still clearly remember the Tai Chi in 2007 signed the first contract amount of more than 10 million single operation and maintenance projects – Beijing government information resources exchange platform and related applications, when the two sides signed a five-year strategic cooperation framework , co-operation this year has entered the third year, with the client business and constantly enrich and increase the commitment of the operation and maintenance Tai Chi has become more complex and arduous work.

“Customers now demand has not let you help him to see if the page is not normal, there is no system downtime that simple. Customers will have more new demands, including the requirement to timely service providers to optimize their systems, sometimes Changes related to customer business processes, and more level. “In this regard, Sun Guofeng that the face of new changes in customer demand, the program provider in addition to master the professional knowledge and professional tools, while the client applications have to very familiar to customers very familiar with business processes so that customers can easily correspond to corresponding rise in the IT operation and maintenance service needs.

Thoroughfare Wealth

January 25 this year, IBM launched a global scale, a software value-added services (Software Value Plus, SVP) program. Take this activity, IBM in the domestic real taste of the many partners from the “business experts” of support, and new ways to win the competition.

According to this plan, IBM will spend 130 million U.S. dollars to implement marketing and demand-pull programs, including cooperative marketing through a major expansion program to help partners design, identify more selling opportunities; by representatives of regional partners to increase their local partners support, to discover the business opportunities, develop solutions, large-scale cooperation in joint marketing activities.

Including integrated service management products, including Tivoli, IBM will SVP plans to provide new resources to help partners develop their own technology, marketing skills, successful sales of IBM software portfolio,HP Pavilion ZD8000 battery to help partners to better meet customer demands for higher market profit.

“I hope that through the SVP program, IBM ISM solutions can bring the city more affluent cities in China. Prior to this, we must first ensure that our partners to ensure that agreed to the indicator; At the same time, we also made a number of product line re-planning, such as the ISM in a range of products aimed at SMB’s, this product is easier with channel partners, but also make it easier for them to provide solutions to their users. “Xu Weili said.

Yeh said the diverse forms of HP’s technology services, including the standard responsive support services to enhance the active-site and on-site support services. One key business for enterprise customers to provide personalized service and the key of active business alliance, greatly protect the sustainability of enterprise IT systems to run.

For communications over wide, its channel strategy in 2010 mainly consists of two parts: the national ministries and other characteristics of users with the industry, the implementation of “big industry” strategy, by the Beijing headquarters of the operation and maintenance management experts provide customers with tailor- customized IT Operation Management solutions, and organize their implementation; for the regional market users, “has been extensive communication up all hope that close cooperation with partners in various regions rely on local partners, to sell wide standard tool for communication products . continued operation and maintenance management to develop the Chinese IT market, improve customer satisfaction, and create greater value for our customers. “Xuyu Yi said.

Earlier in the market, relatively low-NEC MasterScope also recently unveiled “2010 NEC development of innovative solutions.” In this exhibition, NEC set up a special “support services and cloud computing platform” exhibition, show management, including operation and maintenance, including NEC global platform for enterprise-class cloud point. “By NEC global standard of cloud point platform that can quickly respond and solve business problems encountered in various places, and to help businesses more fully and effectively grasp the various branches of the IT capability and conditions to enable enterprises to get the overall business continuity reliable protection. “NEC Global CEO Nobuhiro Endo said.

Prior to this, NEC announced that NEC (China) Co., Ltd. as the core, its in China a unified group of about 20 operations. Based on this integration, including the IT operation and maintenance, including IT solutions, network system, software development and so will be the top priority in the overall business NEC. Meanwhile, NEC propose to the 2012 year-end, in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan into the system integration service providers were Top 5 strategic objectives. At the same time, NEC will Dell Inspiron 500m battery be in North China, East China, three areas of the South regional director, to strengthen the channels of promotion and regional sales force.

Harvard Business Review: Apple’s three key glorious years of innovative experience

Innosight president, “vision: to use theory to predict industry change the future,” Scott Anthony, co-author of “Harvard Business Review” published an article, summed up Apple’s Dell Inspiron 8000 battery offer of three key innovative experiences.

That was in September 2005, a media company’s CEO said to me: “Trees are not always long to heaven.” The company’s core business strong, but the CEO told the team, in the changing environment, the need for innovation in order to remain successful.

A few days later, a colleague said to me: “In the past few years, you are a supporter of Apple. Do you think Apple’s stock how to buy and what?” I said: “The tree does not always long to heaven.”

Since the second half of 2005, Apple’s stock price has tripled in market value approaching 250 billion U.S. dollars, second only to Exxon Mobil and Microsoft, the world’s first company worth.

The amazing story has repeatedly been analyzed to tired, but still have enough warning significance. Ten years ago, that is Steve Jobs returned to Apple to save the company three years later, the company’s market value was only 30 billion. Its PC products in niche markets with a group of loyal followers, but nothing more Microsoft MCTS Training.

In the past decade, Apple released a 5 game-changing innovation legitimate:

iPod: MP3 player look elegant opened Apple’s brilliant years.

iTunes: is a strong business model with the charm of the software, that as long as affordable, convenient interface enough that people are willing to pay for music.

iPhone: a smart phone, three years after the launch, still did not have competitors beyond.

AppExchange: Yes, Apple provides 98% of the application nobody needs. But this choice is still very alarming extent.

Apple store: This is the “Apple revolution” in the most quiet, the present 2 HP pavilion dv6000 battery billion U.S. dollars worth of goods flow through this revolutionary shop.

Many people think that Apple iPad is the sixth largest killer, although premature, but seeing my children every day to play iPad, let me just touch the surface iPad believe that the destructive potential.

For Apple, the next decade does not mean great as in the past ten years generally. Must now consider how cross-business conflict management. When the income of close to 100 billion U.S. dollars, the company will find it difficult to maintain high growth rates.

Recalling the error when I reply to my colleague, is quite simple. I did not think of innovative products in 5 3. After all, in decades to create 3 different multi-billion dollar new business handful the number of companies.

If Apple does stop at the iPod, then I recommend to my colleagues will be wiser. After all, in the past few years, as the market is becoming saturated, iPod sales has slowed.

But the wise is that Apple unremitting pace of change.

Apple’s glory years of experience provides the following three important lessons:

Do not just focus on the manufacture of fine products, but to build a beautiful business model, create, transfer and acquisition of valuable new model. If there is no difference with the use with iTunes and the AppExchange, iPod and iPhone is also very difficult to astonish.

Dimensions from the platform and channel for reflection. When the 6 months after Apple released the latest odd supporting applications, Apple’s latest invention to those chasing competitors will find themselves further behind Microsoft MCITP Certification.

To take the portfolio approach. Although Apple has made significant progress, but not any one product is “home run”, released in 2007 on such as Apple TV, Jobs would not produce the HP pavilion DV6 battery desired is so sensational.

Turning to the success of many companies when Apple will refuse to learn from experience, but stressed: “Apple has Steve Jobs @, but we do not.”

Indeed, Jobs is Apple’s success led to the central figure, if the reputation of such a visionary, charismatic, Apple may indeed such a success. But in my view, Apple innovation “black box” has been opened, innovation success can therefore be achieved more widely.

The first step, Sony plans to launch this fall in the United States Internet TV, which uses the Google Android operating system and the Chrome browser. Internet TV is not only listed TV channels, but also the screen is also built on Google search box, users can choose content viewing. As input devices, Sony consider providing a keyboard-based remote control.

Meanwhile, Sony is also preparing to develop the next generation of mobile phones with Google and e-book reader, through a series of products and network integration, Sony CEO Sijinboge expressed the hope to provide consumers with wider choices.

By using Android as the core product, Sony hopes to reduce the product development cycle and reduce costs.

To March 31 the year ended, Sony restructuring effect is obvious because the profit start to improve. To this end, Sony is preparing to further support the television, personal computers and video game sales.

As announced alliance with Google, Sony shares at 18 yen earnings Friday, the day the Nikkei fell despite the lowest point a year. However, Google software platform will be ready to open next summer, to Sony’s advantage when the message, as other TV manufacturers will also develop products on this platform.

Nomura Securities analyst Eiichi Katayama said: “The alliance with Google how much revenue will contribute to Sony, which depends on Sony to become the first Sony VGP-BPS2 battery Internet TV manufacturers are able to maintain the advantage after.”

Microsoft big Bing theory targets Google
With Microsoft and Yahoo officially teaming up in the search market this week, it’s time to wait and see if this move could eat into Google ‘s hearty lead over its top opponents.

Microsoft MCTS Training and Yahoo announced Tuesday that Bing is totally fueling Yahoo search results in the U.S. and Canada. The search integration comes more than a year after both companies announced that they were joining forces to better take on Google, the goliath of the search industry.
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It will be a while before there are any numbers to show how the pair is fairing against Google , said Hadley Reynolds, an analyst at market research firm IDC. However he said the launch was a positive start.

“It’s important for Microsoft and Yahoo that the shift from Yahoo search to Bing for organic results took place smoothly this week — apparently without any technical breakdowns,” Reynolds said. “These transitions are dicey in any software environment, and the fact that Yahoo and Bing pulled off the project successfully should build confidence among search marketers and advertisers.”

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With the 10-year deal, Yahoo gave up its own longstanding search technology in lieu of using Microsoft’s fairly new Bing search engine to power all searches on the various Yahoo sites.

Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission approved the search agreement earlier this year.

This week’s announcement marks a first step in putting the agreement into action. Satya Nadella, a senior vice president at Microsoft, noted in a blog post that at this point, Bing is only powering results in English in the U.S. and Canada. The setup is expected to expand into other languages and regions in coming months.

Yahoo users should expect to see few, if any, differences in their searches. What could change is the level of competition that Google faces.

“With Yahoo’s moving their volume of search users to Bing, it makes it a much more level playing field for Bing vs. Google ,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “While the combined Microsoft and Yahoo search traffic is still significantly lower than what Google drives, it’s much larger than the two had on their own. This gives Bing better numbers to show advertisers and a chance to cut into Google’s lead.”

Neither Bing nor Yahoo separately has had any luck cutting into Google’s lead in the search market. Google captured 65.8% of the search market in July, according to market research company ComScore. Yahoo had 17.1% and Bing had 11%, ComScore reported.

The plan, then was for Bing and Yahoo to hitch their teams together and to make a reinforced assault on Google’s gates.

“This probably saved Yahoo, who, without the removal of the cost related to search and the influx of Microsoft revenue, would likely be gone by now,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “For Microsoft, it puts them in the search game but by creating a stronger competitor…. The onslaught against Google began when Microsoft basically wrote a blank check to Yahoo to fund the battle. But this [week’s integration] will represent the biggest win Microsoft ever got in one move.”

Olds said Google should look over its shoulder and pick up the pace on search innovation if it wants to maintain its expansive lead.
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“Now that Microsoft and Yahoo’s teaming up on search has become a reality, it’s definitely something that Google will take notice of and react to,” he added. “Both Microsoft and Yahoo have moved from also-ran status to a credible threat in terms of their traffic and technology.”

Olds also noted that Microsoft MCITP Certification has deep pockets and probably can afford to invest in the search competition for years.

“For Google, search is the cash cow that supports everything else they do,” Olds noted. “Microsoft’s situation and perspective is different. They have their existing software franchises to generate money. This will put more pressure on Google’s profitability over time.”

With Microsoft and Yahoo officially teaming up in the search market this week, it’s time to wait and see if this move could eat into Google ‘s hearty lead over its top opponents.

Microsoft and Yahoo announced Tuesday that Bing is totally fueling Yahoo search results in the U.S. and Canada. The search integration comes more than a year after both companies announced that they were joining forces to better take on Google, the goliath of the search industry.
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It will be a while before there are any numbers to show how the pair is fairing against Google , said Hadley Reynolds, an analyst at market research firm IDC. However he said the launch was a positive start.

“It’s important for Microsoft and Yahoo that the shift from Yahoo search to Bing for organic results took place smoothly this week — apparently without any technical breakdowns,” Reynolds said. “These transitions are dicey in any software environment, and the fact that Yahoo and Bing pulled off the project successfully should build confidence among search marketers and advertisers.”

With the 10-year deal, Yahoo gave up its own longstanding search technology in lieu of using Microsoft’s fairly new Bing search engine to power all searches on the various Yahoo sites.

Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission approved the search agreement earlier this year.

This week’s announcement marks a first step in putting the agreement into action. Satya Nadella, a senior vice president at Microsoft, noted in a blog post that at this point, Bing is only powering results in English in the U.S. and Canada. The setup is expected to expand into other languages and regions in coming months.

Yahoo users should expect to see few, if any, differences in their searches. What could change is the level of competition that Google faces.

“With Yahoo’s moving their volume of search users to Bing, it makes it a much more level playing field for Bing vs. Google ,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “While the combined Microsoft and Yahoo search traffic is still significantly lower than what Google drives, it’s much larger than the two had on their own. This gives Bing better numbers to show advertisers and a chance to cut into Google’s lead.”

Neither Bing nor Yahoo separately has had any luck cutting into Google’s lead in the search market. Google captured 65.8% of the search market in July, according to market research company ComScore. Yahoo had 17.1% and Bing had 11%, ComScore reported.

The plan, then was for Bing and Yahoo to hitch their teams together and to make a reinforced assault on Google’s gates.

“This probably saved Yahoo, who, without the removal of the cost related to search and the influx of Microsoft revenue, would likely be gone by now,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “For Microsoft MCITP Certification, it puts them in the search game but by creating a stronger competitor…. The onslaught against Google began when Microsoft basically wrote a blank check to Yahoo to fund the battle. But this [week’s integration] will represent the biggest win Microsoft ever got in one move.”

Microsoft Page Aimed at Mac Switchers
PCs just work, Microsoft MCTS Training argues in a new Web page that attempts to convince Windows users not to switch to the Mac platform.

The site contains a list of talking points, including “Having Fun,” “Simplicity,” “Working Hard,” “Sharing,” “Compatibility,” and “Choice”.

It’s a bit of propaganda, perhaps. But Microsoft recognizes who its chief rival is, and has attacked it directly.

In the “Simplicity” section, for example, Microsoft says: “The computer that’s easiest to use is typically the one you already know how to use. While some may say Macs are easy, the reality is that they can come with a learning curve. PCs running Windows 7 look and work more like the computers you’re familiar with, so you can get up and running quickly.”

Users might interpret other comments less favorably: “Apple’s productivity suite file formats won’t open in Microsoft Office on PCs,” Microsoft MCITP Certification says in its “Simplicity” section. “This can be a real hassle for Mac users sharing work documents with PC users.”

Using the Value Based Drafting strategy and Excel spreadsheets, you can create a straightforward cheatsheet that’ll help you dominate your fantasy football draft.

NFL training camps are in full swing, and the regular season is only a month away. This is an exciting time for fantasy football players getting ready to draft their teams. If you own a fantasy football team and are looking to dominate your draft, creating a simple spreadsheet using Value Based Drafting (VBD) strategies can give you the championship edge. Fire up Microsoft MCTS Training Excel (or your spreadsheet of choice) and give it a try.

The ABCs of VBD
VBD is a strategy that goes beyond simply drafting the best player available and digs deeper to help you draft players that will give you the most value at their position. “It’s tempting to look at standard-scoring leagues and say, ‘Oh, clearly quarterbacks score the most points, so I should make sure and get one of those first,'” said Christopher Harris, fantasy analyst for ESPN.com in an e-mail to me. “But if all QBs score a lot of points, scarcity isn’t an issue, and you can potentially afford to wait.”

For instance, say you’re in a 10-team league that starts 1 QB and 2 Running Backs (RB) per game. If there isn’t much difference in quality among the top 10 QBs, but there’s huge gap in production when you get beyond the top 5 RBs, you’re better off drafting one of the top five RBs before the top five QBs even if those QBs score more fantasy points. As Footballguys.com writer Joe Bryant, the guy credited with coming up with the VBD concept, puts it, “The value of a player is determined not by the number of points he scores, but by how much he outscores his peers at his particular position.”
View Slideshow See all (8) slides
Step One: Determine Your Baseline
Step Two: Setup Stats
Step Three: Project Stats
Step Four: Sort Players by Fantasy Points

More

Another big advantage of using a VBD cheatsheet is you can tailor your cheatsheet specifically to your league settings and scoring system. “Gone are the days of counting touchdowns and field goals. Now yardage, receptions, bonuses for TD length, performance bonuses, etc., are all standard fare,” said David Dodds of Footballguys.com in an e-mail, “So it is natural that people want projections (and cheatsheets) that match up closely to their scoring system.”

Your VBD Cheatsheet
Creating your own VBD cheatsheet is fairly straightforward once you know the formulas involved in applying VBD principles, and have a good spreadsheet program like Excel. The first, and most time-consuming, step is projecting stats for the players to be drafted. You can do this by looking at each player’s stats from the past few years and factoring in their current playing situation to estimate this year’s stats.

To create my VBD spreadsheet I decided to trust the projected stats found on ESPN.com and CBSsports.com and my own intuition to estimate how well each player in my league draft pool will perform. Next, I used those stats to determine how many fantasy points each player would score and ranked them from the highest scorer to the lowest.

Ranking Potential Draftees
The critical step in determining players’ value is creating a baseline you can use to gauge other players at that position. The easiest way to do this is the Worst Starter method. With this method, you use the projected fantasy points of the worst starting player at a position as your baseline. So if you’re in a 10-team league that starts 3 Wide receivers (WR), your baseline for WRs would be the 30th WR in your rankings.

While this method works fine, Microsoft MCITP Certification I prefer to use Chris Harris’ method of counting how many players at each position are likely to be drafted in the first 10 rounds. This is harder to determine, but I feel like it gives me a more precise ranking. So if 28 RBs are drafted in the first 10-rounds of a draft, the 28th ranked RB will serve as my baseline player in determining the VBD values for other RBs. You can find a good estimation of what players are taken in the first 10 rounds of most drafts at FantasyFootballCalculator.com.

From there you determine each player’s VBD value by subtracting the projected fantasy points of your baseline player from the projected fantasy points of each player at that position. Finally, you rank all players of every position by their VBD value to determine each player’s overall value.

Go With Your Gut
As with anything in fantasy football, VBD isn’t absolute. There are times where you can afford to, or even should, deviate from the VBD concept. “I think of VBD as a way to normalize positions, so I can have a better sense of breaking points: where does it make sense for me to get my starting quarterback, or my flex player, or my starting tight end?” said Harris. “I’ll also factor in stuff like keepers, ADP(Average Draft Position), and what I know about the knuckleheads in my league (e.g., what positions they like, what players they tend to overdraft, etc.).”

Step-by-Step VBD
For the actual nuts and bolts of creating a spreadsheet using Excel, I called Todd Beckstead of FantasyStrategies.com, and he walked me through the process of creating a VBD spreadsheet of my own. Check out the slideshow to see how to create your own VBD spreadsheet.

If this seems like too much work, Beckstead and Dodd offer applications that can do all the heavy lifting of VBD for you. FantasyStrategies.com uses a Web-based application to generate a cheatsheet tailored to your league’s settings. FootballGuys.com’s Draft Dominator is an awesome standalone app that goes in-depth using dynamic VBD strategies that constantly change priorities based on needs/wants of the other teams and many other factors. The free versions work great, but you’ll want to pay for the premium versions ($4.95 for the premium Fantasystrategies.com draft guide, and $27.95 for the premium Draft Dominator) to get the most up-to-date projections.

Personally, however, I enjoy putting together my own VBD spreadsheet; it really helps you understand the nuts and bolts of your fantasy football league and it’s one of the best ways I’ve ever found to dig into NFL stats. And, as any sports fan worth his or her salt knows, the stats are half the fun. If you’re serious about fantasy football, give VBD a try—you’ll be glad you did.